Morris, Vanessa Irvin. "The Street Lit Author and the Inner-City Teen Reader." Young Adult Library Services 10, 1 (Fall 2011): 21-24. (Note: This article is a mashup of two previously released publications: "Inner City Teens Do Read," a conference paper at the University of Birmingham (UK), and "The Author and the Teen Reader" a blog article from [http://www.streetliterature.com www.streetliterature.com])

Akinyemi, Aaron. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/aug/21/popular-fiction-black-men Where is the good popular fiction for black men? Way too much shelf space is given over to the tawdry clichés of gun-toting 'ghetto lit']. Guardian News and Media (UK) Books Blog, August 21, 2009.

Akinyemi, Aaron. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/aug/21/popular-fiction-black-men Where is the good popular fiction for black men? Way too much shelf space is given over to the tawdry clichés of gun-toting 'ghetto lit']. Guardian News and Media (UK) Books Blog, August 21, 2009.

Rugg, Peter. [http://www.pitch.com/2009-06-18/news/in-federal-prison-on-a-drug-conviction-quentin-carter-wrote-bestselling-novels-about-kansas-city/1 In federal prison on a drug conviction, Quentin Carter wrote best-selling novels about Kansas City]. The Pitch (Kansas City, MO), June 16, 2009. Also see [http://www.pitch.com/2009-07-16/news/letters/ Letters from the week of July 16].

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Rugg, Peter. [http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/in-federal-prison-on-a-drug-conviction-quentin-carter-wrote-best-selling-novels-about-kansas-city/Content?oid=2195004 In federal prison on a drug conviction, Quentin Carter wrote best-selling novels about Kansas City]. The Pitch (Kansas City, MO), June 16, 2009. Also see [http://www.pitch.com/2009-07-16/news/letters/ Letters from the week of July 16].

Readings

(reverse chronological order)

Morris, Vanessa Irvin. "The Street Lit Author and the Inner-City Teen Reader." Young Adult Library Services 10, 1 (Fall 2011): 21-24. (Note: This article is a mashup of two previously released publications: "Inner City Teens Do Read," a conference paper at the University of Birmingham (UK), and "The Author and the Teen Reader" a blog article from www.streetliterature.com)

Coe Booth says she knows of a few libraries in which her first novel, Tyrell (Scholastic, 2006)—an ALA Best Book for Young Adults about a 15-year-old Bronx boy whose family is homeless—is in a glass display case or behind the checkout desk instead of on the shelf in the teen section. "It’s definitely very frustrating—especially since it’s being done in anticipation of a challenge, not in reaction to any real complaints," she says.

Even more infuriating, says Booth, is labeling. "It seems that any book with an African-American character on the cover is quickly being labeled street lit, regardless of the subject matter or the setting of the book."

Meanwhile, books about Caucasian characters in urban settings don’t get lumped into that genre. "It's a form of racism," she says, because the street-lit category is an "easy way for some librarians to label a book that they can quickly dismiss as being inferior"—and for that reason, choose not to buy.

For the record, I never called my work "street literature" and I never will. When I began to publish ground breaking contemporary novels with Flyy Girl in 1993, and Capital City in 1994, I called them "urban classics." They were "urban" because they dealt with people of color in the inner-city or "urban" population areas. They were "classics" because I considered myself one of the first to start the work of a new era. But now, after sixteen years and sixteen novels in the African-American adult urban fiction game, I feel like the man who created the monster Frankenstein. Things have gotten way out of hand. So it's now time to put up my pen and move on to something new, until the readership is ready to develop a liking for fresh material on other subjects.

Resources

PHAT Fiction Wikispace -- PHAT Fiction: Engaging Hip-Hop Literature in the Public Library (*phat=popular, hip and tempting fiction). The PHAT Fiction panel discussion was held on June 28th at the 2010 American Library Association's Conference in Washington, D.C. During this discussion, the panelists explored the impact of hip hop publishers and authors in public libraries and a comparison of racial, ethnic, and regional aspects of urban fiction. This wikispace was created as a means to communicate, collaborate, and share ideas and information with librarians, teachers and supporters of the genre. The PHAT Fiction panel was organized and moderated by Susan K. McClelland, Reader's Advisor Librarian for the Evanston Public Library in Evanston, Illinois. Participants of this panel discussion included: K.C. Boyd, co-moderator Area Library Coordinator, Chicago Public Schools - Department of Libraries and Information Services; Kia Dupree, panelist Author of "Damaged"; Vanessa Morris, panelist Librarian and Assistant Teaching Professor The iSchool at Drexel University; Christopher Lassen, panelist Children's Librarian, Brooklyn Public Library; Megan Honig, panelist Young Adult Materials Specialist, New York Public Library; Amy Pattee, panelist Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science Simmons College; Paula Chase Hyman, panelist Author of the "Del Rio Bay" YA Series; D.L. Grant, panelist Assistant Manager, San Antonio Public Library; Tachelle Wilkes, panelist Author/Educator; and Coe Booth, panelist Author of "Tyrell" and "Kendra."

Black Expressions Book Club
Urban Fiction/Street Literature books are included in the Fiction, Short Stories & Anthologies, and Urban Fiction sections.

Streetfiction.org
An excellent source of information on Urban Fiction/Streetlit books. This site has bibliographies of numerous authors as well as information on new books, interviews and books reviews.

Bestseller Lists

There are no definitive, well-established sources that can be used to determine what are the bestselling Urban Fiction/Street Lit books as there are for general Fiction books. The sources shown below list bestsellers for African-American Fiction, in general, but include books considered as Urban Fiction or Street Lit. While these lists are not as comprehensive as the New York Times or Publishers Weekly bestsellers lists, they are helpful for developing an Urban Fiction/Street Lit collection for a public library.

Street Fiction: Hip Hop, Street Lit, and Urban Fiction Book Reviews and Author Interviews
Street Fiction is dedicated to reviewing street fiction, also known as urban fiction, street lit, or gangsta fiction. One of the fastest growing genres, these books expose the reader to drugs, violence, sex and and the gritty realities of street life in urban America. Daniel Marcou, creator of this web site, is a corrections librarian, creative writing instructor, and author.

R.A.W. SISTAZ Book Reviews
There are reviews of new books and you can "search archives" for books already released.